This invention relates generally to a pickup carriage transporting mechanism for a disk record player, such as a video disk player, and more particularly, the present invention relates to such a mechanism used for transporting the pickup carriage linearly radially with respect to a turntable.
Various types of video disk players are known, and in some known video disk players, a pickup used for deriving video and/or audio information is arranged to move linearly radially with respect to the center of a disk placed on the turntable. Particularly, in a known video disk player, the pickup having a stylus is held in a casing mounted on a movable carriage. The carriage is arranged to move along the stationary chassis of the player in such a manner that the carriage moves linearly. To this end the carriage is movably held at its front and rear portions, and is driven at the front or rear portion so that the carriage, and therefore, the pickup moves left and right when viewed from the front of the player.
However, since the carriage carrying the pickup is driven at its one end, i.e. at its front or rear portion, the carriage is apt to incline. Such inclination of the carriage is apt to result in trouble in the loading and unloading operation of a disk, in case the disk is arranged to be loaded by inserting a disk casing into the player. In detail, in a known video disk player, a disk casing having a disk therein is inserted through a front opening of the player so that the disk casing engages with a disk casing opening mechanism which slides along guide rails provided at the left and right sides of the turntable. The right guide rail is divided into a plurality and one piece of the divided sections of the right guide rail is disposed on a side wall portion of the carriage. Loading and unloading of a disk are effected only when the pickup is positioned at its resting position because all the divided sections of the right guide rail must be aligned to form a straight guide rail so that the disk casing opening mechanism is capable of sliding along the left and right guide rails. Although no problem would occur if all the divided sections of the right guide rail are aligned to form a straight guide rail, the movable section of the right guide rail, which section is attached to the side wall portion of the carriage, is apt to incline when the carriage is in its resting position because the carriage is driven by receiving a tensile force at only the front or rear portion of the carriage.
When alignment of the divided sections of the right guide rail is not achieved, trouble is apt to occur such that the disk casing cannot be inserted fully, or the disk casing inserted cannot be taken out.